New Dress Form (Or Mannequin...)

I finally found one! I got a dress form for my craft room, to help with photographing my Etsy items!

Okay, so it's not really a dress form... maybe for Barbie, not me. It was used as a clothing display mannequin at J.Crew in Center City Philadelphia. A friend of a friend works for a cleaning company and J.Crew was throwing out ALL of their mannequins. The base on this puppy is awesome, super heavy duty black metal with an (un-functional) cool pedal, and the body moves easily up and down the base. Plus, it's on wheels!! Already Happy about the wheels, I can photograph the front, roll quickly and photograph the back in a snap.

Really, throwing all of these out? Thankfully, the friend of a friend decided to keep all 40 of these and resell them.

I got a great deal, and I already re-photographed some of my Etsy items :) Like this 80's sweater vest that looks SO much better on a body rather than a hanger... Darn oversized 80s...

I've always wanted to set out my next day outfit on a mannequin, and I think I'll start doing that!

Popcorn Stitch Striped Baby Blanket

My nephew's first birthday just came and went, and for his birthday, I made him another blanket. I think the gifts we make for one another are the gifts everyone remember and hold dear to their hearts. I can see my nephew growing up with his blankets, knowing his aunt made them for him when he was little.

I decided to do a whole blanket of popcorn stitches. I picked the popcorn stitch because I thought it would be fun for a one year old to run his hands through the blanket and grab the little popcorns because they will almost never come out. I finally taught myself how to do a proper popcorn stitch. Then I realized how long of a project this blanket would be. Also, I'm still trying to learn when to stitch in the turning chain, or when not to. So the two sides of this blanket came out really (really really) wonky. I tried to fix it with the borders, but it was not really going to fix all my mistakes after mistakes. My theory is if my nephew uses the blanket enough and it gets dirty and it has to be washed, it will just blend in as an aged, old treasure.

I made up the pattern, starting with about 120 chains, then double crochet in the next row, then the next would be the popcorn stitches. I used single crochet until I was ready for the popcorn stitch, which is 5 double crochets all together in one stitch. Then three single crochet between each popcorn. After the popcorn row, I switched colors then started over (with the double crochet row). The I just alternated where the popcorn stitch would fall, so they weren't in row, but more a scattered pattern.

Lastly, as I said before, I tried to fix the wonky edges by adding a border. I used a white double crochet, blue single crochet, then a white slip stitch for the final edge.

It took me about 50 minutes to do one row of colors - I did 36 rows of colors - meaning just the stripes of the blanket took me about 30 hours. Add on the border, I probably spent 5 hours. Not to mention the about 3 hours I spent weaving and tying all those loose ends. Okay, so a 38 hour blanket! I always think these projects take much less time than they do!

Hopefully my nephew loves this blanket and will remember his auntie every time he hugs it.

note the strange edges, especially on the right... don't tell anyone!

Vintage Designer Purses! - Dooney & Bourke

It's super rare when you find fabulous designer purses in almost pristine condition. I hit the jackpot! I found two Dooney and Bourke leather purses, both in awesome condition.

The first is a super rare shape/style, made early in the 1980's by the starting up company. It still has the original tag attached - why someone didn't use this purse beats me. It's a beautiful military green color with tan trim and the leather is SO soft.

Find this purse on my Etsy page, here!!



The other purse I found is a more classic shape, the tack bag, in navy leather with tan trim. Another vintage purse in fabulous condition, and the cute all weather leather duck on the brass fob.

Find this navy Dooney and Bourke purse here!!!

I wish I could keep these purses, they are so fabulous, but I know someone has been looking for something similar, so snatch them up while they are on my site :)

fish eye camera

it's rare when I remember to bring my fish eye camera somewhere (real film!), so I have a compilation of photos from the past year that I just got developed. There are NO one hour photos places in Philadelphia... everyone sends their photos away to be processed somewhere else, it's too bad.

One year ago from tomorrow, August 1st, I was on a flight to Miami, then on a 4 hour road trip with Steve and his 7 family members to Key West. Oh, it was beautiful! I forgot my film was black and white until I got it processed, but it was fun to see what I had on the camera!

Key West, Florida. Fort Zachery Taylor Historic State Park. August, 2011

Indiana! The cutest puppy alive :) June 2012

Grandma's Jewelry - Rings and Bracelets

I've been wanting to photograph and document my grandmother's jewelry for a while now. Since I started having memories of my Grandma E, these memories always included her jewelry. I think my first memory includes the story of why Grandma always wears clip-on earrings: she was too scared to get her ears pierced because her mother told her it would hurt too much and she would cry. Meanwhile, I didn't even wince when I got my ears pierced (my mom told me I could only get my ears pierced if I didn't cry... so I didn't!).
Speaking of crying, I cried my eyes out this past Saturday because I had 4 cavities filled (yuck). 3 of those 4 were drilled and filled without any Novocaine. Maybe my extra crying was making up for the no crying for my pierced ears.... or maybe having 3 teeth drilled without a local anesthetic was the reason....

I decided to break these post up into a few, since there is so much jewelry and so many beautiful photos. Here are some of Grandma's rings, ring dish, and bracelets.

Decorative, ornate gold toned rings.

I just learned that this is called a "Poison Ring".... what were you keeping in there, Grandma?!

A clear, glass ring holder. A gold toned wavy bracelet with pearl and turquoise beads.

Copper bracelets. The one on the right I very much so remember my Grandma wearing... I don't remember if it had something to do with health/balance, but she was always wearing these hammered copper bracelets.

Summer Colors

I found this over the weekend and it made me so happy! Such a 1960's serving tray... I imagine my fiance serving me waffles and espresso in our bright sunny beach house bedroom as I listen to the morning ocean waves. Wait, I don't have a beach house nor has my fiance ever served me breakfast in bed. Maybe you should buy this tray if you have a beach house, fiance who wakes up before you, or would like to attain either or both of these things :)

Find the Florida Tray on my Etsy store here!!

Cheddar-Dill Scones

Two more items from a recent CSA food box was locally made cheddar cheese and the herb of dill. The best part about living in the age of the internet is simply typing two ingredients + recipe into google, and always finding a tasty meal to make using these ingredients. The first recipe to appear with the search "cheddar dill recipe" is this one by Barefoot Contessa, Cheddar-Dill Scones. I cut the recipe in half and still got 16 scones out of the recipe! Maybe I did something wrong....

mmmm!

 

I've never made a scone before, that's my only complaint to this recipe. I have no idea what the dough should look or feel like! Here's a photo of my slightly kneaded dough - does this like right to you, scone enthusiasts out there?

with their egg wash!

Anyone hungry? Apparently I'm the only one who was hungry enough to eat them (Steve ate maybe one...). They were a little dry after they cooled down- however they were SUPERB right out of the oven! Make these if you have company or know people will gobble them up within the hour they finish baking!